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Crossover
In the Mirror Universe ' |image= |series= |production=40512-443 |producer(s)= |story= Peter Allan Fields |script= Peter Allan Fields and Michael Piller |director= David Livingston |imdbref=tt0708522 |guests=Andrew J. Robinson as Garak, John Cothran Jr as Telok |previous_production=The Wire |next_production=The Collaborator |episode=DS9 S02E23 |airdate= 15 May 1994 |previous_release=(DS9) The Wire (Overall) Emergence |next_release=(DS9) The Collaborator (Overall) Preemptive Strike |story_date(s)=Unknown |group="N"}} (2370) |previous_story= Preemptive Strike Emergence |next_story= All Good Things... Preemptive Strike }} Summary After experiencing operational difficulties while traveling through the wormhole, Kira and Bashir find themselves in an alternate universe where the space station is populated by exact doubles of Garak and Odo, and is run by Kira's counterpart, Kira II. In this universe, they have no knowledge of the wormhole, and humans have no rights whatsoever. Because of this, Bashir is sentenced to manual labor, working under the sadistic, human-hating Odo II. Later, Kira II tells Kira about the last crossover, which occurred with Captain Kirk a century ago. That incident led to the formation of a powerful alliance between the Klingon and Cardassian empires in which Bajor is also a major player. Kira II tells Kira that she cannot allow Kira and Bashir to live, but Kira convinces her counterpart to spare them and let her try to find a way back. Kira steals a moment with Bashir and tells him what she knows. Since a transporter accident caused the last crossover, he thinks they might be able to escape using another one, and tries to talk O'Brien's counterpart into helping him. Unfortunately, the beaten, put-upon Terran has little interest in risking the wrath of his superiors. Meanwhile, Kira almost succeeds in securing Quark II's help, but he is arrested by Garak, Kira II's aide, for helping Terrans escape the station. Kira then meets Sisko's counterpart, who receives better treatment than the other Terrans because he runs missions for Kira II. Afterwards, Kira II reassures Kira that she has nothing to fear, and suggests they should become closer. Later, Garak II tells Kira that he intends to dispose of Kira II, and that he will let Kira and Bashir escape if she pretends to be Kira II, then resign and allow Garak II to take over. Garak II then reveals Bashir will be killed if she does not comply. Kira hurries to Bashir and tells him they must find a way back to the Runabout and make their escape through the wormhole. She fills Sisko II in on Garak II's plan, hoping he will help out of loyalty to Kira II, but he is unmoved. That night, Garak II prepares to put his plan into effect at a lavish party thrown for Kira by Kira II. Meanwhile, Bashir is able to take advantage of an accident at the ore-processing plant where he labors, killing Odo II and escaping. News of Bashir's escape soon reaches the party, while Bashir manages to locate O'Brien's counterpart, who decides to help this time. However, the two are caught and brought to the party to face Kira II. Despite Kira's pleas, Kira II sentences Bashir to death. When she turns to O'Brien II, he makes an impassioned speech, telling the assembled crowd what Bashir has revealed about a universe where Terrans have respect and dignity. His words move Sisko, who turns on Kira II and helps Kira and Bashir to escape. The two return to their universe, leaving Sisko and O'Brien's counterparts to fight for their rights in their own world. Errors and Explanations Plot Oversights # What is wrong with Bashir at the beginning of this episode? Did he double up on his daily dosage of obnoxious pills or something? First Kira tries to meditate quietly, and he launches into a panting fit. Then Kira suggests some music, and Bashir launches into a snooty review of Bajoran composers. Granted, Bashir has always had a touch of this arrogance, but the writing for the teaser of this episode puts him way over the top. This could be a way of expressing frustation from working with Kira. # Shortly after arriving at Terok Nor, our Kira makes a comment about the wormhole. Garak reacts instantly, since this alternate reality has never heard of the wormhole. Oddly enough, Garak never takes the opportunity to explore this topic further with either Kira or Bashir. He may have been worried about losing his standing with the intendant for spending too much time with them. # Humans in this episode are identified with a designation that includes a Greek letter for classification. For instance, O'Brien in this episode has a theta Many nitpickers found this very strange. Why would a conquering army establish a system of designations based on an ancient language of the conquered? Wouldn't the conquerors instead base the designations on one of their own languages? Usually conquerors attempt to deculturalize their slaves to increase their feeling of isolation and dependency. This could have been done to reinforce their loss of freedom. # I realize that ore processing was a function carried out on the space station even in our reality, but it doesn't seem very efficient. Usually any type of processing refines a material, doing away with the dross. Why would you transport tons of rock up to a space station only to refine it down? Why not just build a processing plant next to the mines? That would increase the risk of making the environment incapable of supporting life. # The Alliance must be really hard up for slaves. Remember that we call this station Deep Space 9. From Earth, out in the sticks. Why then has the Alliance dragged these humans all the way out here? Aren’t there planets closer by that could be conquered? (Of course, if the Alliance didn't drag humans all the way out to Terok Nor, Sisko and O Brien wouldn't be in this episode; Bashir would have died a slow, agonizing death on the promenade; and Kira would have spent the rest of her life as the love toy of her alternate self.) The Alliance want to make the Terrans suffer as much as possible, so dragging them away from their homeworld to work in a mine on another planet makes perfect sense. # Its an easy mistake to make. Twice the creators slipped with dialogue that was habitual for our reality but out of place for the alternate reality. In the alternate bar, Alt-Quark speaks with our Kira. At one point he asks, 'Do you have a way back to your side, Major?" Only Bashir has referred to Kira as "Major' in this alternate reality, and only then in a whisper. Alt-Kira is called "intendant." Alt-Quark could have found out our Kira’s rank, especially with those ears! # Also—while fleeing from Alliance forces—Bashir asks Alt- O'Brien to tell him how to get to the "runabout pads." Alt-O'Brien seems to understand this term. Since the Federation developed the runabouts, Alt-O'Brien shouldn't know what a runabout is. One would expect Alt-O'Brien to respond to Bashir with, "You mean the landing pads?" Alt-O’Brien is smart enough to realise what Bashir means # I'm amazed how long Alt-Kira lets Alt-O'Brien talk at the end of this episode. Here's a guy who has always been a good little slave, and suddenIy he starts helping Bashir. Alt-Kira wants to know why. In the bar, filled with humans, Alt-Kira lets Alt-O'Brien talk about how glorious it is in the alternate reality, how anything would be better than this. Guess what happens next? The humans rebel, and Alt-Kira seems stunned. (Well, ding, ding, doll-face, what did you expect?) She wasn’t expecting Alt-O’Brien’s explanation to have such an immediate impact. # Kira and Bashir make it back to their runabout. They blast away from the station and go straight to impulse. The episode cuts to the interior of the runabout and Kira announces, "Forty-five seconds to the wormhole." Hold it! Near the beginning of this episode, Kira and Bashir came flying out of the wormhole and were shocked to see the station gone. Kira quickly located it in orbit around Bajor. The whole point of these crossover episodes is that our reality and the alternate reality are parallel. Celestial stuff is in the same place. Remember that it routinely takes at least two hours on impulse to go from Bajor to the station near the wormhole. Since Terok Nor is orbiting Bajor it should take Kira and Bashir at least two hours to get back to the wormhole, not forty-five seconds, unless, of course, there was a big time skip when we weren't looking. But opting for the time skip has its own problems. If it took two hours to get back to the wormhole, how did Kira and Bashir manage to evade the patrol ships? Maybe they performed a warp-jump? # At the end of the episode Kira tells Sisko that she and Bashir have been 'through the looking glass." This from a Bajoran woman who didn’t know the human expression 'bury the hatchet" when Bashir used it at the beginning of this same episode. Bajoran fairy tales may include a story similar to the adventures of Alice in Wonderland. # I am constantly amazed at the imperturbability of Starfleet officers. Does nothing give these guys pause? Look at it from Sisko's position. He's lost MO officers. Then suddenly they reappear. He opens a channel to them, and their images flash onto the main display in Ops. Think about what he sees at this point. He's got a first officer, dressed in a purple floozy dress, leaning over so the Prophets and everyone else can look straight down her cleavage, and a chief medical officer who looks like he's been mud wrestling! Yet Sisko carries on like he sees this sort of thing every day, simply asking the strangely attired couple where they've been. As Janeway says to Harry Kim at the end of Deadlock ‘’We’re Starfleet officers – weird is part of the job!’’ ''' Changed Premesis # Alt-Kira tells our Kira that Spock rose to "commander in chief' of the old human Empire. In Mirror, Mirror (TOS), however, Kirk's woman, Marlena Moreau, refers to being the 'Woman of a Caesar." Moreau says it as if this is the highest rank possible in the Empire. '''Perhaps Ceasar was considered to be Commander in Chief, in the same way that the US President is regarded as Commander in Chief of American armed forces. Nit Central # Rene on Friday, April 09, 1999 - 12:24 pm: In this episode, we see that there is a Benjamin Sisko...but the people in this Universe do not know about the wormhole or the Prophets. But, in the seventh season, we find out that the Prophets are the ones who caused Sisko's birth. I realise that since this is an alternate universe, then Sarah could actually have fallen in love with Sisko's father and have a son. I just thought I would point it out. Stuart on Friday, April 05, 2002 - 6:05 pm:'' If we remember that Terrans are chattel to the Alliance (No rights) then a Klingon overseer could have said "Joe, Sarah, make love in front of me I'm bored, I want to see some action, being stuck on the Bajoran frontier has reduced my diary of ex lovers to the size of a postage stamp commemorating Kahleses victory over Molar on the batle of something or other. I need a fresher on how this love stuff’s done." Thus providing a theory as how this Sisko was born.' # ''SharonslinkyfrogJordan on Saturday, April 10, 1999 - 8:38 am: I wonder where is Jake in this universe. It seems he doesn't even exist! There was a Jennifer Sisko, so somehow, Jake must have been born. Maybe she gave him at birth, and didn't tell Ben. ' Jake doesn’t exist in this universe – Alt Jennifer stated in Shattered Mirror that she never started a family with her Ben Sisko.' # Neil on Friday, November 05, 1999 - 5:50 am: When the runabout takes off from Terok Nor at the end it enters the wormhole and heads towards the Gamma Quadrant. When it comes out of the wormhole in our universe it is on the alpha side. It probably got flipped around when it crossed the barrier between realities. # Kathryn Ramage on Saturday, January 15, 2000 - 2:25 pm: In Necessary Evil, Odo observes that Kira has never worked in the mines; here, she tells Alt-Sisko that she worked in the mines as a child. Kira may have been able to work in the mines without leaving permanent evidence on her hands. # Jennifer on Friday, June 30, 2000 - 9:09 am: Woo-hoo! Found a nit, after watching this ep many, many times. When alt-Garak comes to get alt-Quark (QUUAAAARRRK!) for helping the Terrans, a-Q refers to him as "Mr. Garak." Err, shouldn't that be "Gul Garak"? Doesn't roll off the tongue very easily, but I'm sure alt-Garak was hacked off. ;) Seniram Alt Quark is being sarcastic # Stuart on Sunday, April 13, 2003 - 10:47 am: I cannot believe the Alternate Spock could have been short sighted enough as to allow such a reduction of defences that the Terran empire was unable to defend itself from outside invasion. Brutal Empires make enemies due to their cruelty to their oppresed. Merat on Sunday, April 13, 2003 - 3:05 pm: Not impossible, just wildly improbable. That’s what’s great about alternate universes. ANYTHING is possible. Robert Treat on Monday, February 14, 2005 - 6:02 pm: I think Spock's government could have been steered toward a "disarmament-peace" stance because the only in-house model for reforms would have been the Halkans. However, if he had attempted to disarm the Empire it would have gotten him overthrown by the Imperial Starfleet before the Klingons and Cardassians formed their Alliance. # John A. Lang on Friday, October 17, 2003 - 8:11 pm: Alt-Odo isn't very bright. He allows Kira & Bashir..from OUR universe to whisper stuff to each other in the alt-universe mines. You'd think he'd suspect a plan of escape or something & break it up or at least report it to alt-Kira. Also, Alt-Odo lets Bashir & Alt-O'Brien whisper to each other as well. Granted, Alt-Odo is watching them from a distance, but you'd think he'd go over there and prevent any whispering, seeing that Bashir is from OUR universe & no doubt planning an escape. He’s waiting to see how it pans out. # Will on Thursday, January 08, 2004 - 10:16 am: At first I couldn't accept that this was how the galaxy developed after Mirror, Mirror, but after many years I think it's an interesting spin. Admirable Chrichton on Saturday, January 10, 2004 - 4:00 pm:'' I agree with you Will. The Earth empire was damned barbaric, you make enemies being brutal to others, they want you sorted out. It is like the heads of the Mafia saying I'm sick of this violent life I want to go straight, they usually end up straight in a coffin, they need that fear to survive saying sorry I was a pretty nasty piece of work doesn't suffice, your enemies just say "Yeah.... bang". Secondly how would Spock convince his peers to change their ways, these were pretty detestable people, Mirror Mirror hinted that advancement and high status in the Earth empire lead to riches and power at the expense of others, it doesn’t seem likely that people so corrupt would listen to Spock and his warnings of the consequences of making yourself hated to others. ''' Notes Category:Episodes Category:Deep Space Nine